In Praise of our Parks : Part Five

Last August, I wrote a four-part series of blogs on the history of municipal parks, put together from a great many pages of paper notes I had accumulated. With young children, I am very often thankful for these public open spaces, which get us out beyond the garden gate, and allow us all some physical (and mental) recreation.

In one of those blogs, I mentioned Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead, The Wirral, Merseyside, England, which was the world’s first publicly-funded municipal park, and which impressed Frederick Law Olmsted (1822 – 1903) so much that he recreated many of its features in his design of New York’s Central Park (opened 1859).

En route to Spritzhenry’s recent open garden day, I made a detour to visit this famous park, and was well-impressed by this historical space, which retains some of its original features.

The Roman Boathouse

The Swiss Bridge

A major element in the design of Birkenhead Park was the man-made natural look, using rocks, trees and meandering paths/ waterways – a throw-back to the 18th-century landscaped gardens created by the likes of “Capability” Brown.

Meandering paths leading the visitor through “sinister” woodland……..

……….and between giant rocks…….

….before opening out into a view of a meandering, serpentine river.

I was very pleased to see many areas given over to wildflower meadow-style planting……

It was, for me, great to be able to visit this historic park for real. :-)

Comments

Just read through your earlier 4 blogs, very interesting. I was particularly interested in the reference to Tower Hamlets as my family originally came from that area (I an researching family tree). Will have another look when I am more awake. Bedtime for me now as it is nearly 2.30!!
Goodnight!

So happy that you found a connection, Gee! And, I hope you had a good sleep. :-)

Deja vus, Tt! LOL! Doesn't seem like almost a year ago when you "reprimanded" me on my use of paragraphs and pics! :-) Do you know, each rock is 6' tall, at least?

Bobg - You're welcome, but, apart from the pics here, nothing much obvious remains of the original park, as designed. Except for the huge monumental stone archway, which was the original entrance. I couldn't get a decent pic because I had to take some across a very busy main road. Doesn't look right with heavy traffic in the foreground, lol! Imagine, I got all the way from Fife to Birkenhead without needing a map, then had to stop at a Sainsbury store to ask for directions to the park. (not well signed). At the customer service desk, a lovely lady called Ann drew me a street plan on a scrap piece of paper :-)

Balcony - my list is currently at about 1,000,000 - lol! Your words are so true, though. I believe that the creation of a wilderness/natural look is actually very hard work!

Yes, I agree, to see deliberate wildflower planting areas in a city park was just gr8! :-)

Many Thanks for all comments and likes. Haven't been in Central Park for 22 years. Now, if I could afford it, I'd be off on a trip there, lol! (stuff the stores and tourist traps!)

BBC's "Gardeners' World" made a special episode dedicated to parks, which is occasionally aired on Satellite/cable TV. I caught it once. Presented by Joe Swift, it took in Birkenhead and Central Park, and also showed the movements/groups in place to restore and promote these valuable places, with regeneration and restoration work - admirable! :-)

As for the murky brown water - reminds me of a milk chocolate river! :-)